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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Last week I finished the book I was beta reading and Allegiant by Veronica Roth. For some reason Allegiant took me forever. I like the series but not as much as a lot of people seem to. This week I am reading Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and I finally decided to give Audible a try so I'm listening to These Broken Stars while I clean or do other mundane tasks. My husband even noticed the difference in the house since I downloaded the book... It makes housework so much more fun! I'm still reading Revision and Self Editing by James Scott Bell.

What I'm Writing

I didn't get my Spring Writing Bootcamp update done so I'm including it in this post. I didn't meet all of my goals last week but I did make good progress on my revisions. I wanted to revise several chapters and I ended up working on the same chapter all week but it contained a major plot hole. I am so much happier with it now. It fits the rest of the storyline better and the characters show a lot more personality. This week my goals are to just keep moving forward with my revisions, make my fight scenes stronger, work on my A-Z posts and reading the book on revising.

What Inspires me Right Now

The cleaning progress I make while lost in an audio book is quite inspiring. Balancing cleaning with writing, reading, homeschooling and everything else is so challenging. This way I get some "reading" in while cleaning and I feel relaxed afterwards, like I do when I got lost in a good book (but without the guilt of reading when I should be cleaning lol).

What Else I've Been Up To

A friend and I decided to plan a "freezer" cooking day while the kids are on spring break. It is so hard to take the kids to lessons, run errands and still have dinner ready so hopefully this will help. Besides planning and shopping for a massive cooking expedition I haven't done anything to out of the ordinary. Well, not for me anyway... researching fist fights because I have never been in one and my husband suggested you tube instead of first hand experience doesn't count as out of the ordinary, does it?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

What I'm Reading I read an ARC of Legacy Code by Autumn Kalquist. I hope she writes fast because I really want to know what happens next! I also read My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick which had one of the best fictional families in it that I've ever seen. I'm currently reading Revisions and Self Editing by James Scott Bell and a book that I am beta reading.What I'm Writing I joined the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp. If you want to see my goals go here and my first progress update here. I am finally making progress Slumber. Dialogue is being added, info dumps are being woven in. It feels amazing!Here is an excerpt: Something rustled just off the path. It sounded just like dried leaves in a breeze.I reached for the sewing scissors I always wore on a chain around my neck. There wasn’t a hint of wind.A rabbit would be a good explanation. What else could it be?Myimagination filled in several possible answers.I could just keep walking and pretend that I hadn't heard anything.It might be easier that way.Easier butI needed to face whatever it was, even if it was nothing more than a rabbit. I turned, peering through the growth.I was about to turn away when something gray caught my eye. I barely caught a glimpse before it slipped into the shadows. Whatever it was it had been too high from the ground to be a rabbit.I dropped my scissors back under my blouse. Gathering my skirts, I ran.I'm sure it will change before its done but I'm so happy with the progress!

What Inspires Me Right Now YA Buccaneers and the Spring Writing Bootcamp!What Else I've Been Up To I can't really think of anything... unless you count getting the kids to the dentist. I'm beginning to feel like we live there.

I have been working on my goals for 4 days now and I'm pleased to say that I have made some decent progress! I've also decided that I'm never writing a novel in one huge document ever again. My main goal for this bootcamp is to turn the rough draft of my first novel into something solid and ready to be critiqued. The past four days have been spent breaking the story into scenes and chapters. For some reason I didn't do that when I wrote it. I just wrote and wrote and didn't think about how hard it would be later. (I may have done that for my first two novels...) It is now nice and neat with each scene in its own Scrivner folder. Yay!!! Now I can spend the rest of the week actually working on revisions.
I was sick all the past week but I did get in two walks today. I feel like I can tackle anything! I started reading Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell. I think it was a good choice. I need all the help I can get. I love this story but it needs some serious work. Speaking of which... Good bye! I have a book to work on!

Friday, March 7, 2014

The YA Buccaneers are hosting a three month long Spring Writing Bootcamp! I love the group of writers that are putting this on. They are such a positive and encouraging bunch. They have monthly reading and writing challenges and regular word sprints that I participate in often. Of course I couldn't resist joining their Spring Bootcamp!
I did horribly with my goals during last month's Writer's Recharge but I did learn something. I don't switch from drafting one story to revising another gracefully. Not even a little bit. I felt like I couldn't properly immerse in either story which made my productivity annoyingly low. If my revisions were just fixing a few things I think it would be different but they are more like re-writing at this point. Taking this knowledge I crafted new goals for myself.

Turn Slumber from a wobbly first draft into a true novel

Participate in A-Z April

Keep my brain alive by continuing to make reading a priority, especially books on craft

Fit in lots of walking

Battle Plan:

March

finish breaking Slumber in scenes and chapters

rework one or more scenes daily

write 3 blog posts for A-Z a week

walk every day, weather allowing

spend part of the kid's nap time reading a book on writing

April

finish round of revision/rewrites on Slumber

finish A-Z posts

walk every day, weather allowing

spend part of the kid's nap time reading a book on writing

make sure I have some willing critique partners for my hopefully ready novel

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I am in shock that it is March already. I started March with great intentions when it came to my writing. I made some progress but for the most part I felt guilty because the rest of life got the greater share of my time. Even the time I spent writing felt cluttered by to many unrelated thoughts. The more I struggle the more I feel like a fraud. How can I be a writer if I struggle with something so basic as finding time? I can do it by not giving up. By realizing that I can't do everything and figuring out what I'm willing to sacrifice to make time for what matters most to me. Most of all I can refuse to feel guilty for what I can not accomplish. Maybe someday I can balance volunteering in other areas with writing and homeschooling but right now I can't and I'm going to have to be ok with that.

I've been book hopping this week. I read a bit from this and a bit from that. I'm still reading Allegiant by Veroncia Roth. I finished Say Goodbye to Survival Mode which was amazing and helped me realize that I'm trying to juggle to many things and its ok that I can't. I'm currently reading Third Daughter by Susan Kay Quinn. I'm loving it! I knew I would... Steampunk Bollywood? What's not to like?

What I'm Writing

I did a bit of drafting on my WIP and played around with some flash fiction.

What Inspires me Right Now

I've been getting tons of inspiration from Saying Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine. Now that I finished the book I'm going to work through the sections, applying her advice where I can.

What Else I've Been Up To

Homeschooling, life, reading, writing and I finally found the perfect button for the Kindle case I made!